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Swimming technique, or swimming technique drills are an important part of any serious swim training program.

The type of swimming technique training that is right for you will depend on factors such as your age, swimming ability and level of fitness, but will also depend on what type of goals you have in mind for your swimming. If you intend to compete in all 4 strokes (backstroke, breast stroke, butterfly and freestyle), clearly, a great deal of technical work will be required, especially if you are just learning the strokes.

Learning swimming strokes are a little like learning foreign languages in that they can both be learned in later life, but they are much easier to pick up at an early age.

TRIATHLON SWIMMING

If your goals are triathlon related, it is likely that you will spend most of your training time, and all of your racing time, doing freestyle. In relative terms, freestyle is a fairly non-technical stroke.

Efficiency is critical in a triathlon as, even in a sprint distance triathlon, the distances are relatively long for a swimming race, and you need to preserve the maximum amount of energy in order to be able to complete the bike and run sections.

Training and Drills

Technical training and drills designed to improve your technique and flexibility are extremely important elements of any swim training program. Endurance and power are of course important, and require specific training, but without correct technique, you will be wasting energy unnecessarily, which will have a detrimental effect on your endurance and how fast you can travel through the water.

Open water swimming, as the name suggests, is swimming out of the confines of a swimming pool. This means swimming in rivers, lakes and, here in Singapore, the sea.

Firstly, it is open water and so you are swimming in a natural environment. For natural, read uncontrolled. You are subject to the wind, waves, current and occasionally the inhabitants of that environment.
This means that your nice, smooth controlled stroke may have to be modified to take account of the conditions.
One advantage of swimming in the sea is that the salt water provides more buoyancy than the chlorinated water of a swimming pool. You will sit higher in the water and swimming becomes easier.

When you swim in a swimming pool, you will be swimming in a lane or at least following the lines along the bottom and the chances are that you will be alone in the immediate space around you.

This can cause be distracting for those that like their space, but for those that enjoy swimming in close proximity to others then there is the opportunity to draft of others. By drafting, I mean using the swimmer in front of you to ‘move the water aside’ so that you don’t have to work so hard.

In a swimming pool you have the opportunity to stop or at least kick off the wall every 25 or 50 metres. You have no such luxury in open water – when you start swimming then you can’t stop till you get to where you are going.

A final note of caution though, always take company when you swim open water; either as a companion swimmer or as an observer from the shore. Have fun and be safe!

Triathlon swim training is swim training which is designed to help you compete in a triathlon event. Triathlons usually begin with a swim either in the pool or in the open water, such as in a lake or in the sea. Triathlon swim training therefore differs from regular swim training in the following respects:

The swim section of a triathlon is almost always the first event, and usually involves a mass start, unless it is in the pool. The nature of a triathlon swim training program will therefore depend on what type of event you are doing, and how long it is, but will also depend on factors such as your age, level of experience, and your level of fitness.

TRAINING

As with general swimming training, a triathlon swim program should include the following elements:

→  Endurance
→  Strength
→  Speed/power
→  Drills to improve technique and efficiency

Swimming training is not only important for your development as a triathlete, but is also important for recovery from training in the other 2 disciplines i.e. running and cycling.

GO FOR IT!

Triathlon swim training can be undertaken by almost anyone at almost any level of fitness. Those looking to use swimming more as a training tool without competing in triathlons, may find triathlon swim training more accessible than general swim training as it concentrates on the most simple stroke. And for those of you for whom swimming is not their strongest discipline, you would be amazed how quickly you can make significant progress. Whether you are a weak swimmer, or even a non-swimmer, with the help of a Metasport coach, and an effective program, your swim times will begin to tumble!

Duathlon and Biathlon, now called Aquathlon, are both events that contain 2 disciplines. Strictly speaking, biathlon is a winter Olympic sport in which athletes cross country ski and target shoot, but has been abusively used to describe swim and run events.

• Recently, the International Triathlon Union imposed the use of the word Aquathlon for describing swim run events.

DISTANCES AND TERRAIN

Duathlons vary greatly in terms of distance, and also vary as to terrain. Events are usually staged on pavement, but can also be held off-road and on trails, which might require a mountain bike. The combination of cycling and running is also varied.

• Some events will be a simple bike followed by a run (bike/run), but others might be run/bike/run or bike/run/bike. In between run and bike, there will be a transition area where you can rack/unrack your bike, change your clothing and/or footwear, and take on some nutrition.

Whether it is worthwhile changing footwear will depend largely on the cycling course length – the longer the course, the more likely the added benefits that cycling shoes bring you will be significant.

TRAINING

Training for this event will depend on a number of factors including:

• Your base of fitness.
• Your background in cycling and running.
• The distances you want to compete in.
• How competitive you want to be.

Similar to training for triathlon, biathlon and duathlon carries with it many of the benefits of cross training. Consistent running and cycling workouts are likely to improve your overall health and well being. Also cross training or training for more than one sport is beneficial as it exercises a wider variety of muscles and joints.

• Running, and more particularly the impact of running, can be hard on the body, especially the joints, and therefore balancing your run training with some lower impact exercise such as cycling can be very helpful for recovery and joint health.

GO FOR IT!

You don’t have to be an elite athlete to start duathlon training. If you are new, or coming back to training, check with your doctor first, in case you have any medical issues. Also, talk to experienced triahtletes, and a coach, such as the coaches at Metasport. They will be able to assess your level of fitness and experience in order to formulate a program which is right for you and your objectives.

The fun of duathlon training is in the variety of training. Hours of just running, or hours of just cycling can become dull after a while, but with the variety that duathlon brings, you need never be bored. Add to that the benefits of cross training, and you have a sport that can be beneficial for almost anyone, at almost any level of fitness.